Celebrating 50 Years of DuPont Kevlar

DuPont Kevlar celebrates his 50th anniversary.

Kevlar is about daring bigger, pushing limits, being courageous & helping keep people safe. Since it’s invention 50 years ago by DuPont scientist, Stephanie Kwolek, this resilient, durable and tougher than steel technology has been helping protect heroes & enabling extreme performance. Kevlar has been used in applications ranging from space suits and body armor to sporting equipment and cell phones.

DuPont is celebrating the past 50 years of this extraodinary fiber by collecting 50 Dare Bigger stories that show the amazing impact Kevlar has made in the world.

Linear Composites have had ParaFil ropes, made with DuPont Kevlar brand fibre on continuous test for almost 40 years.

On April 6 1976 in fact, engineers at Linear Composites Limited (LCL) of Keighley, West Yorkshire, England, the leading manufacturer of synthetic ropes, subsea strap- pings and textile reinforced plastic composite materials, set up an external test rig to measure the actual creep strain performance of two types of the company’s ParaFil ropes under all weather conditions. Each rope, rated at 3 tons nominal breaking load (NBL) and made with DuPont Kevlar brand fibre, was placed under a constant 600kg (20% NBL) and 1200 kg (40% NBL).

Today, over 39 years later, in what is believed to be the longest continual rope test on record, those engineers have long retired, but the ropes are still under the same loading, having resisted three decades of exposure to the British weather. But what is more remarkable than the time elapsed is the almost imperceptible creep in the ropes made with Kevlar.

Linear Composites, a member of Maccaferri Group, is a manufacturer of geosynthetics and fiber-reinforced products used in civil engineering, industrial, and military applications.

In addition to Paragrid, Paralink, and Paradrain for civil engineering applications, the company also manufactures ParaFil synthetic ropes and cables, Paraweb synthetic webbing, and Pararib wall-lining material for the mining industry.

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